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Vietnam: Who Will Succeed?
| Article
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11765 |
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Section : |
CURRENT ISSUES
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| Issue
Date : |
4 / 1987 |
2,328 Words |
| Author
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Douglas Pike
Douglas Pike is director of the Indochina Studies Program at
the University of California, Berkeley. He is currently co-
editing the Encyclopedia of the Vietnam War, to be published
by Macmillan/Brassey's. |
Hanoi's rulers, and the party and state institutions they command, have been more constant in purpose and more consistent in behavior than those of any other society in modern times. The winds of change buffeting the world, assaulting communist and noncommunist countries alike, have scarcely touched socialist Vietnam. There is no fully adequate explanation for this, although certainly the reason must lie in, or begin with, its unique leadership.
Since its inception, communist Vietnam has been run by a hermetically sealed leadership group. A small band of not more than 200 in all started out together in 1945. They have continued to rule through the years, essentially unchanged except that their number is being slowly diminished by death. This longtime association has been the great strength of the system, one that proved decisive in two wars. It created a nearly flawless collective leadership. Now, inexorably, mortality is beginning to tell. There are probably 50, perhaps as few as 20, of the originals left. They are still in command, still together, but not for much longer.
It was against this actuarial backdrop that the Sixth Congress of the Vietnamese Communist Party convened in Hanoi on December 15, 1986. In attendance were 1,129 delegates representing 1.85 million party members. In the next four days the congress heard 104 speeches and reports, approved a new party line, and elected a new leadership apparat.
As with congresses in other Leninist systems, the Vietnamese party congress was, above all, a symbolic gesture. Its purpose was to instill new spirit in the true believers as much as to implement policy change. The symbolic message of the Sixth Party Congress was the challenge of renewal and the promise of sweeping change.
Top-level changes
Out of the congress came significant changes at the top of the party leadership, leaving it in greater disarray than at any time in its history.
Of the all-important Politburo, which has long monopolized political power in Hanoi, just over half were retained (eight out of 15, including alternates). The alterations were doubly striking since many key figures were affected. Of the "Inner Circle of Five" that for so long was the heart of the highest level leadership - Le Duan, Truong Chinh, Pham Van Dong, Le Duc Tho, and Pham Hung - only Pham Hung remained at the helm at year's
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